Rob Antle reports:
Newfoundland and Labrador’s privacy commissioner says he is “deeply concerned” that Facebook declined to remove personal medical information posted on its site, despite repeated requests from health officials, and only took action after receiving inquiries from the media.
[…]
On Feb. 9, a Facebook user posted pictures on their page that showed the MCP number, address and detailed medical information — including prescriptions and test results — of a named person.
In his letter to Facebook, Harvey said screen captures containing 111 files of 34 identifiable individuals were posted in total. The file names were the names of patients who attend a cystic fibrosis clinic in St. John’s.
Read more on CBC.ca.
Comment:
If the nonconsensual posting of sensitive health information does not violate Facebook’s community standards, then their standards are flat-out wrong or whoever’s in charge of applying them needs to be retrained.
There have always been exceptions — such as when there is a health issue involving a public figure and that information is newsworthy for other than gossip reasons (e.g., if there was a report showing President Trump does have significant cognitive impairment or worsening neurological status). But this matter doesn’t seem to have any legitimate newsworthy function and should have been removed *immediately* upon notification.